Despite a ‘complaint’, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has verified that Max Verstappen did follow his team’s instructions in Spain.
After the safety car restart, the four-time world champion made touch with Mercedes’ George Russell driving into turn one and was instructed by team radio to give him fourth position.
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Verstappen appeared to be upset on his team radio, and his annoyance eventually overcame him when he later seemed to purposefully smash into Russell. Red Bull wanted to avoid receiving a penalty, so they ordered Verstappen to switch positions with his Mercedes competitor.
In the immediate aftermath of the race, Verstappen was dropped from fifth place to tenth when race officials gave him a 10-second penalty for that specific move.
Now, Marko has had his say on the two events before Verstappen’s penalty incident, the contact between Russell and Verstappen into turn one, and the contact with Charles Leclerc on the start finish straight at the safety car restart.
“On the straight, I’d say Leclerc drove into Max’s car,” Marko told Austrian TV channel Servus TV. “Then came the situation with Russell, and you have to say, Max knows the regulations in detail. He immediately said, ‘Hey, he was out of control, and that’s why I had to go wide.’
“The internal discussion was that it was 50-50, and since it happened right after the safety car period, the impact of a 10-second penalty is much greater than if it happens mid-race. So, that was one thing.
“Max didn’t want to give the position back, but he was instructed to do so – he did it under protest.”
Verstappen fired up
While Red Bull and Verstappen’s sensible approach banished all possibility of getting a penalty for that particular incident, it did further provoke the Dutchman’s ire on a day where he was unable to challenge for the race victory.
It was when he looked as though he was going to give the position back to Russell that he then sped up and crashed into the Brit, a move which 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg said should have resulted in a disqualification.
As it happened, the FIA race stewards confirmed after the race that Verstappen did not need to give the position back to Russell in the first place, ruling that no further action was taken on the initial incident.
That official statement wouldn’t have done much to improve the four-time champion’s mood, with Verstappen already engaging in a fiery post-race interview with Sky Sports F1’s Rachel Brookes.
The Dutchman will now head to the 10th round of the season in Canada 49 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.
